Monsters
by It's Almost A Secret
Summary: Sometimes what frightens us most are the monsters we create for ourselves. One New Yorker finds that monstrous appearance and monstrous intent are two entirely separate concepts.


**Wow, so I have not written anything on here in a good long while. It took me forever to retrieve the login info for this account. I just happen to have caught this movie again recently, and that made me want to do a bit of writing. I've been toying with the idea of a story like this for a while, but it was difficult trying to figure out exactly how to go about it. I think I'm pretty happy with the final product, but I'll let you judge for yourself.**

Lauren Ellis hurried along the darkened New York City streets, casting nervous glances back over her shoulder at regular intervals. Whatever slight buzz she might have felt from the meager amounts of alcohol she had consumed was already fading in the wake of the chills that were now shooting up and down her spine. Why had she let her friends talk her into a night out? She should never have left the safety of her 13th street apartment. Not tonight. Not when there were monsters about.

Lauren glanced over her shoulder again, but saw nothing out of the ordinary. There was nothing to suggest that a band of dangerous…_creatures_ had been let loose upon the city. She couldn't even recall the actual reason the monsters had been called in. It was some sort of strange disturbance in the Hudson River. There had been stories on the news about it, something in there had apparently mutated and gone about capsizing a number of boats, including a cargo ship and a Staten Island Ferry. There had most likely been more information in the report, but Lauren hadn't really been paying her full attention to the anchors' words as she watched. Instead she was focused on quelling the wave of fear that was slowly creeping over her as the group of monsters appeared on her screen.

There were four of them in the city. Lauren vaguely recalled something about a fifth member of their team, some sort of giant insect, but that one had been left behind because it was too large and unpredictable for such a highly populated area. The four that had arrived included a large, sentient blob that seemed to devour everything in its path, a scientist with the revolting head of a cockroach, and some sort of large scaly beast with wild eyes and a set of razor sharp teeth. Yet those three were nothing compared to the giant.

Lauren remembered the first time she had seen that particular monster. It had been during the news coverage of the alien attack in San Francisco three months ago. At first Lauren had thought she'd stumbled upon some sort of children's program, but soon realized that what she was seeing was live coverage from a helicopter at the Golden Gate Bridge.

The giant had towered over everything around her, each foot easily the size of a sports car. At one point she had lifted a truck with her bare hands as though it had been no heavier than a children's toy. Lauren never would have believed it had her fears not been confirmed by other news stations, the morning paper and even a speech from the president himself. Monsters were real, and they had been set loose in a U.S. city. Eventually the giant had defeated a robot at least five times its size, completely destroying the Golden Gate in the process.

And then, even after seeing the terrible powers these creatures possessed, not only had the government neglected to neutralize the threat; they had actually given the beasts their _freedom. _

It was absolute madness. Lauren was certain the president was not of sound mind. Didn't he see the destruction those creatures, the giant in particular, were capable of? What if, one day, it decided it no longer wanted to play by the government's rules? What if it began terrorizing a city or a highly populated area? How many casualties would there be before the army could contain it? Did they even have the means to do so? Lauren shuddered and picked up her pace.

Sure, there had been certain precautions put in place while the monsters were in the city. The giant was relegated to Central Park during the day, since it would be too dangerous for it to move around in the heavy pedestrian traffic of the daylight hours. The people had been alerted to the fact that it might be moving around the city at night, but that it was not dangerous and meant them no harm. As if anyone could know that for sure.

A light breeze swept the air and Lauren pulled her jacket tighter around herself and continued on. There weren't as many people as usual out on the street at this time of night on a Friday. It was around midnight, and other New Yorkers were still out enjoying the nightlife. They would not begin to trickle back from the bars and clubs for another two or three hours yet. Lauren had been at a bar downtown in the East Village with a couple of friends, but had found it impossible to enjoy herself. Finally, after an hour of nervous fidgeting and pretending to pay attention to the conversation, she'd laid down some money for her portion of the tab and left. All she wanted now was to get home and curl up under her covers. The monsters were due to leave tomorrow afternoon. They would still be at large, but at least they would be far away from New York.

Suddenly, Lauren's heart leapt into her throat and she froze in place, breathing hard. Surely she had imagined that she'd just felt a slight tremor. It was because she was on edge, because the giant was on her mind. She waited in silence for another moment. There were a few other people on the street with her, but none of them seemed particularly concerned. She waited a moment, and this time she could not deny the slight rumbling she felt from beneath her feet.

Lauren spun wildly on the spot, eyes darting in all directions. The tremors were growing steadily stronger. She could feel a cold sweat breaking out on her forehead. Then, finally, she spotted it.

For a moment Lauren couldn't breathe. If she'd found the news coverage unsettling, it was nothing compared to seeing the creature in person. Its form was visible from blocks away, huge even in comparison to the taller buildings on Houston Street. Each footstep shook the ground slightly as the giant drew slowly closer to where Lauren stood gaping. Yet the other people in the vicinity didn't seem afraid. On the contrary, a couple to her right were pointing and babbling excitedly to one another. Another man had pulled out a camera and seemed to be trying to find a good angle for a picture. What was wrong with these people? Didn't they see how big it was? Didn't they realize how easily it could crush them all?

Lauren stood gaping up at the giant for only a moment longer before she finally seemed to break out of her stupor. Without another glance backwards, she turned and sprinted as hard as she could in the opposite direction. She cut up Avenue B towards West 4th Street and glanced about frantically for a place to hide. Without thinking, she threw herself down a wide alley to her right. She leaned up against an open dumpster, breathing heavily. She was so preoccupied that it took her a few seconds to register that she was not alone.

There were two dark figures huddled together down the alley to her right. They had been locked in conversation, but seemed momentarily surprised by Lauren's abrupt appearance. They turned towards her, and she could see that they were both male, somewhere in their late twenties or early thirties. For a moment no one moved, then one of the men took a step towards Lauren and the scent of stale beer assaulted her nostrils.

Lauren took a tentative step backwards. "Sorry I-I took a wrong turn," she said quickly. She turned to leave, but one of the men quickly blocked her path. He was smiling at her in a way that made her hair stand on end, and from this close up Lauren could see that his eyes were bloodshot.

"Hey there pretty lady," said the other man, slurring his words slightly as he took a step towards her. Lauren's heart rate quickened. She tired to push past the man who was blocking her exit, but he only laughed as he seized her arms and pinned them behind her back.

"Where you goin' in such a hurry?" he asked, leaning in close, and Lauren shivered as she felt his hot breath on her ear.

She was blind with panic now, all rational thought driven out by the adrenaline coursing through her veins. Every one of her muscles was screaming at her to run, but the grip on her arms was too tight. Unable to flee, she did the only other thing she could think of and let out a loud, piercing scream. It cut the quiet night air like a knife, and for a moment the two men seemed caught off guard. Lauren managed to scream once more before one of her captors finally regained his bearings and clamped a hand over her mouth.

They were moving in closer now. Lauren thrashed wildly, but it was no use. In her panic she did not even register that the ground had begun to shake slightly harder than before. For one horrible moment she squeezed her eyes shut tight, resigning herself to her fate. In the next moment, however, her attacker's hold suddenly vanished from behind her. Lauren looked up in confusion just in time to see the man hit the side of the building to her left, swatted aside by a huge hand as though he were an insect.

Lauren was too dazed to properly process what had just happened, but the other man's eyes widened with shock as he turned to flee down the other side of the alley. A whole arm had appeared now, high over Lauren's head. With one quick motion a large hand snatched up the dumpster leaning against the wall and threw it into the retreating man's path. He stopped just shy of being crushed as the heavy weight crashed to the ground in front of him. A moment later the hand came down again and smacked the man forward, closing the distance between him and the dumpster. He hit it with a loud smack and then fell to the ground, unconscious.

Lauren had sunk to her knees without any conscious memory of having done so. She felt as though her legs were too weak to support her weight. From her place on the filthy floor of the alley, she stared up into the giant's face, nearly fifty feet above her own.

The giant was too large to fit into the alley. It seemed as though she had barely managed to fit one of her arms into the tight space. Lauren felt her body go limp with terror as the large hand came down a fourth time, this time headed directly for her. She felt her body leave the ground, lifted as effortlessly as though she weighed nothing at all. Yet the giant's grip was surprisingly gentle for someone her size.

With great care, the giant lifted Lauren up out of the alley and brought her up to eye level. Lauren's head swam a bit at the sudden increase in altitude.

"Are you okay?" the giant asked. Her voice was slightly booming, but not at all like Lauren had expected. It was not a growl or a low grunt, but actually rather pleasant and feminine. Lauren was also taken aback by the genuine note of concern that she heard there.

Maybe she saw how absolutely speechless Lauren was, but the giant did not wait for an answer to the question. Instead she went on talking. "I heard you scream," she explained, looking a bit sheepish, "I'm sorry if I frightened you. I hope those men didn't hurt you."

From this close up, Lauren could see that the giant's face was not as terrifying as she'd originally envisioned it either. Now that the giant's face was not contorted with anger or the effort of fighting off a 300 foot robot, as it had been on the news footage, she actually seemed rather pleasant. She had large, pretty blue eyes and a kind smile. She didn't seem so much like a monster, Lauren thought. In fact, she appeared to be just like a regular person, only a bit larger.

Lauren didn't voice any of these thoughts, however. Instead, she put a great amount of effort into shaking her head no in answer to the giant's question.

Immediately the giant's smile widened, her eyes sparkling slightly. "Oh that's good, I was worried I hadn't made it in time. Are you okay then? Do you need to be taken to the hospital?"

Lauren shook her head again, quite unsure of how to make her mouth form coherent speech.

"Okay then, I'm glad you're alright. My name is Susan, by the way," she said brightly. After a moment's thought she added, "Or Ginormica, I suppose. The government is pretty insistent on that one."

Lauren finally found her voice just in time to choke out her own name. "L-Lauren," she stammered, still a bit numb with the shock of it all.

Susan glanced back down towards the alleyway where the two men were still sprawled. Lauren looked down at them as well. They seemed very small from this vantage point.

"I hope I wasn't too rough with them. I think I only knocked them out, not that they didn't deserve worse," she said. Her face darkened, and for a moment she looked quite a bit more intimidating. It soon passed, however, and the look of anger vanished as she turned to face Lauren again.

There was a moment's pause, before Lauren finally mustered up the courage to squeak out, "T-thank you." It was all she could manage at the present time. The enormity of what had almost happened was beginning to weigh down on her.

"No problem, I'm just glad I could help," said Susan, smiling widely once more. She seemed so genuinely polite and friendly that even though one good squeeze was all it would take, Lauren somehow knew that Susan would not hurt her.

The was another pause, and then Lauren felt a slight swooping in her stomach as Susan began to lower her back down towards the ground. She teetered for a moment, leaning on Susan's outstretched hand for support, before she managed to gain her bearing on her unsteady legs. Susan rose up to full height again, and Lauren, craning her neck all the way back as she gazed upwards, realized once again how absolutely massive the woman was. Yet there was no fear there now, only awe and a bit of gratitude.

"I should be going," came Susan's voice, breaking Lauren out of her reverie, "I'm supposed to be back at Central Park soon. The General doesn't want me to stay out too late."

Lauren simply nodded, she could think of nothing else to say or do. She lingered a moment longer and then, with one last glance upwards, she turned and began walking up towards East 5th St. When she had gone half a block she turned and glanced over her shoulder, and saw Susan still staring after her. Susan gave a friendly wave and Lauren, without conscious thought, returned it. Then Susan turned and headed up 4th Street towards Avenue A, her footsteps once again causing slight tremors as she walked. Lauren watched her go, then refocused her attention on the blaring sirens of the two police cars that had just pulled up alongside the alley.

Not at all in the mood to talk to the police about what had happened, Lauren turned and continued to walk towards 5th. A small crowd had begun to gather since the start of the incident, and now it was easy for Lauren to vanish from sight among them while most people were preoccupied looking at Susan's retreating back or at the two assailants as they were loaded into the back of one of the police cars.

Susan continued to walk in the direction of her apartment, her mind blank. She knew that come the morning she would face the full enormity of the night's events, but for now it was all too much to take in. As she walked she took great care to keep herself in plain sight on the more populated roads, giving alleys and side streets a wide berth. Yet her steps were slower now and a good deal more relaxed, as though she could not remember why she had been in such a hurry in the first place.

**Thanks for reading. I like to imagine that not everyone would have been immediately accepting of the idea of monsters, even once they had saved the planet twice. I also think it's a lot of fun to write about Susan from an outside perspective, so I had a bit of fun with that as well. I hope you enjoyed, leave me a review and let me know what you thought if you have the time.**


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